SEELS Advisory Panel Membership and Plans

September, 1998

	SPECIAL EDUCATION ELEMENTARY LONGITUDINAL STUDY (SEELS)

	Proposed Membership and Plans for Advisory Panel



	SRI Project 3421

SPECIAL EDUCATION ELEMENTARY LONGITUDINAL STUDY (SEELS)

Advisory Panel Membership and Work Plan

In commissioning a design for the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), the Office of Special Education Programs sought technical support for design activities from an advisory panel composed of researchers with outstanding experience in large-scale research, including issues related to sampling, measurement and instrumentation, logistics, and analysis.

Advisory Panel Members

SRI International proposed the advisory panel members, all of whom were approved by OSEP and have agreed to lend their expertise to the SEELS design work. These advisors and other panel participants are listed below.

	Name	Company	Address	Numbers
TA	Lizanne DeStefano	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	236 Education Building 1310 S. 6th Street Champaign, IL 61820-6990	bus: 217-333-8520 bus fax: 217-244-0538 destefan@uiuc.edu
TA	Douglas Fuchs	Vanderbilt University	Peabody College for Teachers Nashville, TN 37203	phone: 615-343-4782 doug.fuchs@vanderbilt.edu
TA	Russell Gersten	Eugene Research Institute University of Oregon	132 E. Broadway, Suite 747 Eugene, OR 97401	bus: 541-342-4268 bus fax: 541-342-4310 rgersten@oregon.uoregon.edu
TA	John Love	Mathematica Policy Research	P.O. Box 2393 Princeton, NJ 08543	bus: 609-275-2245 bus fax: 609-275-2245 jlove@mathematica-mpr.com
TA	Kevin McGrew	St. Cloud State University APSY Department	720 4th Avenue, S. St. Cloud, MN 56301	phone: 320-255-3037 McGrew@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu
PO	Judith Holt	Office of Special Education Programs U.S. Department of Education	Switzer Building, Room 4622 330 C. Street, SW Washington, DC 20202	phone: 202-358-3059 fax: 202-205-8971 judith_holt@ed.gov
PD	Jose Blackorby	SRI International	333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025	phone: 650-859-4210 fax: 650-859-2861 blackorb@unix.sri.com
PD	Mary Wagner	SRI International	333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025	phone: 650-859-2867 fax: 650-859-2861 mwagner@unix.sri.com
PS	Lynn Newman	SRI International	333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025	phone: 650-859-3703 fax: 650-859-2861 lnewman@unix.sri.com
PS	Susan Marks	SRI International	333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025	phone: 650-859-4428 fax: 650-859-2861 susan.marks@unix.sri.com

PO = Project officer TA = Technical advisor PD = Project co-director PS = SRI project staff

Work Plan

Given the limited amount of time advisors have to offer and for which they can be reimbursed within the budget of the design task (a total of 3 days each), we do not plan to convene the group in person. Rather, we propose to gather their ideas and draw on their expertise through three extended conference calls (i.e., 2 to 3 hours) at key points in the design process. We will prepare materials as background to each call and will provide an agenda for using the time together effectively. We propose the following points in the design phase for calls. The purpose of each call and the materials to be reviewed before the calls are described briefly:

Month 2.25 (late October, 1998; 2 hours). This meeting will consider in broad strokes the major components of the design: conceptual issues, timeline, sample, data collection approaches, student assessment. This conversation may surface issues that the design team had not considered to date and will provide a preview of positions and ideas that should be accounted for in subsequent work. Background materials will provide a detailed overview of design issues.
Month 3.5 (early December, 1998; 3 hours). This meeting will consider in greater depth issues of timeline, data collection approach, and sampling as input to the deliverables for subtask 4, due at month 4. Materials that outline current thoughts on these components of the study and pose specific questions for consideration will be distributed to members in advance of the conference call. The group also will review the input of the task force, as contained in the summary of task force proceedings (deliverable for subtask 3).
Month 7.5 (early April, 1999; 3 hours). This meeting will focus on instrumentation and data collection procedures, in advance of submitting draft instruments (subtask 8, month 8.5). The most current drafts of instruments will be distributed before the call, along with an outline of issues to be considered.

In addition to preparation for and participation in these meetings, advisors will be asked to provide written comments on the following products, which will reflect their input from the conference calls:

Draft project timeline and data collection, sampling, and data analysis plans (during month 5).
Draft instruments (during month 9).

Written comments provided by advisors will be shared with OSEP and incorporated into the final versions of these products.